DC COMICS: The Flash 1990 (Pilot)
DC COMICS IN THE MEDIA Speed Force in the Media The Flash (1990) YOUTUBE: PLOT: It opened with a dark, bleak look at Central City, cowed into horrified submission by a violent motorcycle gang who will kill people just for being out on the street when they drive by and who aren't scared to take pot shots at Police Headquarters. From there, the episode moves to the home of Henry Allen, the father to Jay and Barry Allen. Henry was a police officer, and while Jay followed in his footsteps, Barry became a lab tech for the department, listening to his mother's fears about her son putting himself in harm's way as a cop. In what seems like good-natured ribbing but Barry reads as deep-seated resentment from his father, the old man mocks him regularly for not being a "real" cop. the family disconnect isn't helped by Barry's flighty, artist girlfriend Iris, who doesn't seem to gel with Barry's loved ones at all. After Barry is paged away, Iris talks to his mother; she's got a show later in the week. Barry goes off to clean up the scene of the biker gang's latest shooting, asking Jay to bring Iris and his dog Earl home. Outside before he goes, Barry gives Jay a unique birthday gift: a medal that his brother had won in high school, and Barry apparently stole as a kid. At the crime scene, reporters -- including Linda Park, who would later be the wife of Kid Flash Wally West -- are disappointed to see lab guys instead of "real" cops, too. Barry takes lab assistant Julio Mendez back to the lab to work, but sends him home after Julio dozes off over the microscopes. Barry, working alone in the lab, is struck by lightning and thrown through a shelf of chemicals. Julio returns to find him unconscious, lightning still seeming to course through him. Barry checks himself out of the hospital, seemingly fine, over the doctors' objections, but his father is proud of him. That evening, he proposes to Iris but she cuts him off, not wanting commitment. At the Riders' headquarters, we find out that their leader, a man called Pike, keeps his gang members under his thumb with cult-like loyalty, and that the consequences are dire for those who don't buy in. At work, Barry starts to exhibit strange symptoms, and calls his doctor, who refers him to S.T.A.R. Labs. While out walking his dog later, super-speed kicks in and he nearly injures himself. Later still, Iris calls Barry to come help her set up her gallery show; he's late and can't hail a cab, so he tries out the super-speed thing, but overshoots and instead of crossing the city ends up on the coast, thirty miles away. Iris hangs up with him for the failure to support her art. That night while watching the news, Barry gets a call from S.T.A.R. Labs, who want to see him in person. The scientist in question is Tina McGee, with whom Barry is immediately taken. They start testing his limits, and he blows up a treadmill. After his tests, they go out to eat and Barry consumes a ton of food, realizing that his body is burning calories at a colossal rate and having to replace them. He's worried that he's aging prematurely, and McGee thinks she can help him. She insists he keep his identity secret, though, since her husband was killed while experimenting on genetics when government contacts thought he was representing a security risk. That night, Iris comes over to drop off her keys and Barry cleans the apartment as super-speed...great, except that he's left melted rubber from his sneakers all over the floor and a wind kicked up in his wake throws freshly-folded newspapers all over the place. His shoes are on fire when Iris comes to the door. She tells him she doesn't want to see him anymore. At the Riders' den, Pike plans an attack on the press release where the Riders Task Force is going to be announced...and it's revealed that he used to be a cop. At the lab, Julio has a hair sample he thinks will give them a lead on the Dark Riders. Barry learns that his brother has taken over the task force. That night at the press conference, the Riders attack, injuring the chief of police and rattling the public confidence in the police's ability to handle the problem. That night, watching the news, Pike reveals that Jay Allen used to be his partner and was responsible for injuries he sustained that traumatized him and ended his police career. The next day, Barry is wearing a red "Soviet prototype deep-sea suit," which should not tatter like normal clothes with super speed. It has a layer of reactive insulation and will regulate his body temperature. Using this, she runs him around a track to test his top speed -- which exceeds the speed of sound before he finally stops. The next night, Jay and his task force are escorting a truck, flanking it to protect its delivery from the Riders. Back at the lab, Julio's test results come back and reveal that the hair sample from earlier belonged to Pike. Barry reveals that Pike had a hijacking operation on the side and that Jay had trapped him while he was running a truck full of weapons on the same stretch of road where Jay and company are. Barry is determined to go save his brother, but by the time he gets there, it's too late and Jay is dead. At Jay's funeral, Barry promises his father that he'll get justice for Jay -- that he's going after Pike himself. His father tells him not to, but Barry is determined. He convinces McGee to make him a mask and gloves to conceal his identity, and an insignia for his chest, and heads out and starts terrorizing the Riders using his super speed. His powers periodically start to fade, but he's able to ride it out and catch nearly all of them. Eventually, though, he's stabbed and changes, a pair of cops take him home, where he calls McGee for treatment. Meanwhile, the Riders start buzzing about a red demon that's been chasing them down. When Barry and McGee are examining his injuries, Iris shows up. McGee shows herself out, covering for him by saying that she's a specialist. That night, Iris and Barry decide that they should get back together, and that commitment isn't a necessity. While they're in bed, though, they realize that their take-out is ready. Barry zooms off at super-speed to get it, coming back too fast for Iris to believe him. Later, when he goes to stitch his cut up, he has fully healed. At the police department, Barry begs another cop to let him go interrogate one of the Riders -- it's a woman who had first sold out her boyfriend to Pike, and later been instrumental to his plan succeeding with the truck. She's also the one who stabbed The Flash. Barry tells Lyla -- that woman -- that he believes her about The Flash. While the Riders start planning to break everyone out of jail, Barry uses soil samples to figure out where they are and goes there as The Flash to bust them up. Julio is left wondering what happened. Barry fights off most of the Riders, realizing what their plan is and showing up to thwart it after recovering his brother's "lucky" medal at Pike's headquarters. Barry heads to police headquarters to tell the chief that Pike's men are going to break their friends out of jail. The chief sends every available man to help, and Barry wants to suit up as The Flash to pitch in as well, even though he's continuing to have problems with his powers. He passes out, calling for Tina as he does so. Later, the Riders are attacking the jail when the cops surround the building and threaten to storm it to keep them pinned down. It turns into a gunfight between the Riders and the cops, with The Flash showing up to tip the scales in favor of the police -- even though he's occasionally losing his powers and Pike manhandles him a few times as a result. Eventually, after his identity is revealed to Pike, Barry creates a tornado, throwing Pike in the air. As he tries to stop himself from being hurled, Pike grabs a power line and is electrocuted and dies. After that, the gang falls apart fairly fast. Later, Barry and McGee agree to continue working together and communicate better than they had been. He gives his brothers' lucky medal to his nephew, telling him a story about how his brother had been an inspiration to Barry in his track days, and that if his nephew ever needs him, he'll be there in a flash. WHO'S WHO: MONITOR'S NOTES: * Barry Allen's older brother's name is Jay. Jay Garrick was the original Flash in the comic books. * The building used in the prison scene is one that is wholly inadequate for its purpose. Chief Cooper refers to the inmates as "...serial killers, hit men and the worst scum on earth...", yet there are corridors with large windows with unreinforced glass; interior scenes show as many as six occupants per cell and mixed male and female populations in the same cell block. Furthermore, Pike is able to shoot out the lock on an access tunnel with one shot. None of these conditions would be considered adequate for a prison holding the kinds of criminals the chief described. Category:Comic Books in the Media Category:Comic Book TV Series Category:DC Comics Category:Speed Force The Flash Category:Tina McGee Category:Iris West Category:Linda Park Category:Flash Barry Allen